City Managers are champions of running tight-staffed building departments. But no matter how skilled or experienced they are, balancing the demands of development projects, ensuring public safety, and keeping budgets under control can feel like a never-ending uphill climb.
When added to the mix, new projects, new community priorities, and the unexpected can take a municipality from overburdened to overwhelmed practically overnight. In these overwhelmed municipalities — with limited resources and fluctuating workloads — it's tricky to keep your balance, even when (nearly) everything is going according to plan.
Let's look more closely at how outsourced building department services can combat building department overwhelm in your municipality.
One of the biggest challenges when relying solely on an established building department is that you can’t scale staff with your workload. This often results in a lack of staff during busy seasons (requiring an unsustainable amount of overtime) and insufficient work during slow seasons.
Instead of balancing overworked and underutilized employees, third-party building service partners like SAFEbuilt can provide scalable solutions at the right time with the right staff for the services you need most, such as:
By outsourcing building department services like these, you take a stronger, more consistent, more balanced approach to addressing your broader systemic challenges.
This approach also allows you to onboard temporary specialists to handle the highest pressure points and experts to attack the backlog so you can free up your current staff to focus on their most pressing demands. And in all these areas — and more — SAFEbuilt has you covered.
As fewer people pursue a job in the trades industry, building departments are experiencing an extreme shortage of certified staff. So, if you find a qualified candidate, why wouldn’t you want to hire them full-time to secure them for year-round work?
It’s important to keep in mind that in-house employees come with additional costs, including:
You must also account for recruiting budgets, including the time spent interviewing and onboarding new staff. Once you find the right candidate and get them up to speed, you could discover they aren’t the right fit for the team and have to start over from scratch. With SAFEbuilt, we can adjust to get the right people in place without causing delays in daily operations.
With a third-party building department team on your bench, you can get timely plan reviews and inspections even if your workload surges or your internal team experiences illness or turnover. This safety net helps prevent projects from sitting idle (which ultimately leads to lost revenue, frustrated residents, and unnecessary stress).
But a “one-size” solution definitely doesn’t “fit all.” When vetting potential outsourcing partners, customization is key. With fully customizable service options, you can leverage the expertise of a third-party provider for short-term coverage, project-specific support, and augmentation of your internal team as needed.
At SAFEbuilt, we bring a custom and personalized approach to supporting your building department — complete with the ability to adjust services based on your development workload and needs — to combat overwhelm. In so doing, we provide:
Curious what our building department support looks like in real life? Check out this example:
Overwhelm happens to every building services department and municipality, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Outsourcing with SAFEbuilt for one, several, or all of our customizable outsourced services can help get you and your team back to your top priorities and focused on what matters most. For a closer look at what we can do, check out our Electronic Permitting Webinar or contact an expert to get started today.